FORUMS SET ON TROLLEY LINK TO LA JOLLA

Proposed La Jolla link to be discussed during meetings over 3 weeks

the proposed $1.7 billion trolley link to La Jolla — will be the subject of public meetings starting next week.

The series of forums, starting with a Tuesday session in Clairemont and continuing through June 21 in other communities, will focus on the project’s draft environmental documents released in early May.

Those reports for the Mid-Coast trolley line estimate the impact the light-rail extension could have on noise, traffic, air quality, aesthetics and other aspects of life along the proposed 11-mile corridor.

The extension would include eight new stations, including two on the Univerity of California San Diego campus and one at Westfield UTC. A ninth station — at the VA Medical Center in La Jolla — is being considered.

Joe LaCava, vice chairman of the La Jolla Community Planning Association, said debate is likely to continue over the project’s cost and whether a trolley extension is the answer to the area’s traffic gridlock.

The new corridor is projected to cost more than three times the $510 million it took to complete the trolley’s most recent — and shorter — extension east through Mission Valley and under the San Diego State University campus.

Still, LaCava said, the proposed extension to La Jolla enjoys strong support among residents along the envisioned route.

“You really don’t get the sense of any kind of serious opposition,” he said. “This project is kind of a logical extension. It uses the existing railway (south of state Route 52). It connects to UCSD. It connects with the employment centers in the UTC area. I’m just hearing: ‘Why didn’t they build it sooner?’”

Janay Kruger, chairwoman of the University City Planning Group, said there are many details to work out during the public-comment period for the environmental documents, which ends July 17.

She hopes the project’s planners will ensure that noise limits are established for the rail network and that each station is aesthetically pleasing.

“We don’t just want some blocky, awful” station design, she added.

San Diego City Councilwoman Sherri Lightner, whose district includes much of the corridor, could not be reached for comment.

County Supervisor Ron Roberts, one of the project’s most prominent backers, said in a news release this month that the trolley extension would be “a significant step forward for transit access in San Diego.”

In December, Roberts said he was worried about cost increases that pushed the total from $1.24 billion to $1.7 billion during the past two years. But he added that he had asked federal regulators to allow overlapping of the project’s design and construction phases to save money.

Members of a Mid-Coast trolley working group met Wednesday and discussed a range of concerns that they hope will be addressed in the project’s final environmental reports. Those include positioning bus stops as close as possible to the planned trolley stations and making sure that wildlife corridors in areas such as Rose Canyon aren’t closed off by the new trolley link.

The public can submit formal comments and questions about the project by sending them to Leslie Blanda, Project Development Program Manager, SANDAG, 401 B St., Suite 800, San Diego, CA 92101. Or email her at
midcoast@sandag.org; send a fax to (619) 699-1905; or call (619) 595-5620.